New Belgium Frambozen:
Greetings and salutations one and all and welcome to another winter beer review that turns away from the darker malt based winter beers and goes with a more fruit based flavor.  Frambozen from New Belgium is a raspberries based beer that is marketed as a Thanksgiving beer and really, I can see that angle pretty easily with it being a lighter beer that could be drunk at the dinner table and not weigh you down.  The beer pours a light brown color with an off-white head that appears to have touches of red highlights in it but no lacing is left and it has a nose of a berry based hard candy and malts.  The beer’s flavor isn’t that complex, it reminds me of fruit based sodas that I used to get as a kid though it isn’t nearly that sweet but the raspberries are still very present throughout the sip of the beer and don’t offer much depth of flavor.  The ABV in this beer is a surprising 6.5% but it’s hardly noticeable which seems to be a thing with most fruit based beers and if you drink a lot of these it will catch up with you quickly so, you know, word of warning if you like this beer (just me doing my civic duty).   Me, I don’t hate it but it’s not my cup of tea and really, I see this as being more of a summer beer with it’s lightness and fruity flavor but I’m not in the New Belgium marketing meetings so my opinion can only go so far.